The Onion hits the “airwaves” online
Friday, April 18th, 2008America’s popular spoof news source, The Onion, has launched a web video version of their popular newspaper and website. Onion News Network (ONN) is reaching out to readers with high quality video clips that mimic the style and tone of a popular cable news channel. The site will likely be wildly popular with procrastinating college students and bored wage slaves alike, a target demographic who tend to get their real news online as well. The ONN website takes parody to the next level and reflects the growing popularity of online video.
ONN features news clips, generally about two minutes in length, which poke fun at everything from the 2008 Elections to immigration reform. One clip, headlined in classic journalistic fashion, is called “Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results of 2008 Election Early”. The deadpan anchor interviews an official from Diebold (manufacturer of electronic voting machines), as well as getting reactions from people on the street. The hilariously played Diebold official apologizes, saying “This country is based on the fantasy that the government is the voice of the people. Going through the motions of voting… is central to our culture.” One woman on the street complains about the leak, arguing, “If you can’t trust your shadowy overlords to keep a secret, what is the purpose, really, of voting in a puppet democracy?”
The videos are produced and styled to look very realistic, even promoting a fake TV show called “Scarlet” at the beginning of each clip. This gives them an air of legitimacy that reflects very badly on our mainstream TV news. Indeed, this week ABC has been roundly criticized for their handling of the Democratic debate in Pennsylvania, where the focus of questioning was on sniper fire comments and flap lapel pins instead of on issues. ONN’s mockery of the election process calls attention to the media’s inability to reflect the views and desires of middle America. The success of fake news outfits like The Daily Show and The Onion suggest that people have very little faith in the “talking heads” on television, and ONN’s website takes advantage of the shift towards online “infotainment”.
The New York Times has run a very insightful piece about the value of The Onion and its place in online video circles. “ONN has dialed down the corny, fun reworkings of platitudes (“Hotcake Sales Brisk”) that continue to have a place in The Onion’s print and online newspaper. Instead, the series tries to dramatize the more complex and newsy headlines.” This focus on skewering and twisting actual events lends itself extremely well to the YouTube generation. The largest video site online is full of remakes and spoofs of commercials, music videos, and movies, many of which are more popular than their original incarnations. ONN takes this trend and runs with it, even featuring fake anchor biographies. The lead anchor, generically named Brandon Armstrong, is praised as “a five-time recipient of the DuPont Award for Outstanding Coverage of the Dupont Corporation,” an obvious dig at the credibility of journalists and news outfits with ties to corporate interests.
In my brief exploration, I ran across a hilarious parody of an FDA recall on “piping hot” pot pies with crusts of “a flaky consistency and a golden brown color”. The actor stumbles along in typical bureaucratic doublespeak, with a backdrop of blue curtains and flanked by American flags. He deadpans, “We’re instructing all U.S. citizens in possession of one or more pot pies to send those pot pies to FDA headquarters, attention FDA Panel conference room.”
The Onion’s ONN website is likely to stand out in a growing crowd of video sites on the web. Their timely reflection of the public’s general distaste for network news, coupled with a format that entertains and informs, will win over viewers who previously had to subsist on YouTube’s low quality and amateurishness. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see parodies of ONN showing up on YouTube’s “most popular” page.
By Haley January Eckels
